Posted on 11/29/2009 8:12:39 AM PST by Saije
Year after year surveys reveal that only 37 percent of young Americans know where Iraq is and a large minority cannot locate the Pacific Ocean on a map.
Like clockwork, commentators then write how horrible it is that America is so geographically illiterate. While it is true that geographic ignorance is a big problem, these commentators do geography no favors.
Geography has long been thought of as merely the memorization of places. This is how it is taught by many schools.
The notion that geography is just a memory game and not a science led some of the nation’s finest educational institutions including Harvard University to stop teaching geography in the 1940s and 1950s. Geography has been in exile ever since.
Geography is more than place memorization. It is a spatial science that involves studying what is where, why it is there and why people should care. This expands geography to include places, cultures, environmental patterns and behavior by persons and cultures.
A geographic background helps people understand economic patterns such as why the Rust Belt is where it is and how the Asian economic tigers managed to feed each other’s growth by capitalizing on their shared access to the Pacific Ocean.
Having information on the layout of various Afghan ethnic groups and how they relate to one another would help coalition forces in predicting how the Taliban will try to spread its insurgency.
Finally, home buyers could save themselves misfortune in the future if they learn how to read Geological Survey maps, which would tell them if their home is in a flood plain or in an area full of sinkholes.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/missingcountry.htm
Nations and their borders are not set in stone; consequently, your grandparents’ globe or Atlas might be outdated and teachers don’t seem to know the basics.
A retired teacher I recently met - admitted to not knowing where Sri Lanka could be found on a map. Appalling.
Since many countries merge, split, or just decide to change their name, there are many “missing” countries that no longer exist. This list is far from comprehensive, but it’s meant to serve as a guide to some of the most well-known missing countries of today.
Abyssinia: The name of Ethiopia until the early 20th century.
Austria-Hungary: A monarchy (also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire) that was established in 1867 and included not just Austria and Hungary, but also parts of the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Romania, and the Balkans. The empire collapsed at the end of World War I.
Basutoland: Lesotho’s name prior to 1966.
Bengal: An independent kingdom from 1338-1539, now part of Bangladesh and India.
Burma: Burma officially changed its name to Myanmar in 1989 but many countries still aren’t recognizing the change, such as the United States.
Catalonia: This autonomous region of Spain was independent from 1932-1934 and 1936-1939.
Ceylon: Changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972.
Champa: Located in south and central Vietnam from the 7th century through 1832.
Corsica: This Mediterranean island was ruled by various nations over the course of history but had several brief periods of independence. Today, Corsica is a department of France.
Czechoslovakia: Peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
East Germany and West Germany: Merged in 1989 to form a unified Germany.
East Pakistan: This province of Pakistan from 1947-1971 became Bangladesh.
Gran Colombia: A South American country that included what is now Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador from 1819-1930. Gran Colombia ceased to exist when Venezuela and Ecuador seceded.
Hawaii: Though a kingdom for hundreds of years, Hawaii wasn’t recognized as an independent country until the 1840s. The country was annexed to the U.S. in 1898.
New Granada: This South American country was part of Gran Colombia (see above) from 1819-1830 and was independent from 1830-1858. In 1858, the country became known as the Grenadine Confederation, then the United States of New Granada in 1861, the United States of Colombia in 1863, and finally, the Republic of Colombia in 1886.
North Yemen and South Yemen: Yemen split in 1967 into two countries, North Yemen (a.k.a. Yemen Arab Republic) and South Yemen (a.k.a. People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen). However, in 1990 the two rejoined to form a unified Yemen.
Ottoman Empire: Also known as the Turkish Empire, this empire began around 1300 and expanded to include parts of contemporary Russia, Turkey, Hungary, the Balkans, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire ceased to exist in 1923 when Turkey declared independence from what remained of the empire.
Persia: The Persian Empire extended from the Mediterranean Sea to India. Modern Persia was founded in the sixteenth century and later became known as Iran.
Prussia: Became a Duchy in 1660 and a kingdom in the following century. At its greatest extent it included the northern two-thirds of Germany and western Poland. Prussia, by World War II a federal unit of Germany, was fully disbanded at the end of World War II.
Rhodesia: Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia (named after British diplomat Cecil Rhodes) prior to 1980.
Scotland, Wales, and England: Despite recent advances in autonomy, part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, both Scotland and Wales were independent nations that were merged with England to form the U.K.
Siam: Changed its name to Thailand in 1939.
Sikkim: Now part of far northern India, Sikkim was an independent monarchy from the 17th century until 1975.
South Vietnam: Now part of a unified Vietnam, South Vietnam existed from 1954 to 1976 as the anti-communist portion of Vietnam.
Southwest Africa: Gained independence and became Namibia in 1990.
Taiwan: While Taiwan still exists, it is not always considered an independent country. However, it did represent China in the United Nations until 1971.
Tanganyika and Zanzibar: These two African countries united in 1964 to form Tanzania.
Texas: The Republic of Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836 and existed as an independent country until annexation to the United States in 1845.
Tibet: A kingdom established in the 7th century, Tibet was invaded by China in 1950 and has since been known as the Xizang Autonomous Region of China.
Transjordan: Became the independend kingdom of Jordan in 1946.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR): Broke into fifteen new countries in 1991: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldovia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
United Arab Republic: From 1958 to 1961, non-neighbors Syria and Egypt merged to become a unified country. In 1961 Syria abandoned the alliance but Egypt kept the name United Arab Republic itself for another decade.
Urjanchai Republic: South-central Russia; independent from 1912 to 1914.
Vermont: In 1777 Vermont declared independence and existed as an independent country until 1791, when it became the first state to enter the United States after the thirteen colonies.
West Florida, Free Independent Republic of: Parts of Florida, MIssissippi, and Louisana were independent for ninety days in 1810.
Western Samoa: Changed its name to Samoa in 1998.
Yugoslavia: The original Yugoslavia divided up into Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovenia in the early 1990s.
Zaire: Changed its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997.
Zanzibar and Tanganyika merged to form Tanzania in 1964.
Schools need to be returned to local control where the local community decides who sits on the school board, what curriculum is taught, and who continues to teach.
I was a public school drop out who later began dating a college student who was going to school to become a teacher. I sat in on her classes occasionally and even took tests with the classes for the hell of it. I was acing tests that the actual future teachers were struggling with.
There are some schools which no longer teach geography, history, music and the arts, or science. Gotta save money for the football team, ya know.
Anyway, a few years ago, there was a survey done of mostly young people out of high school (some in college or just out of college). All the survey asked is for the participant to name the capital of his/her home state. In PA, for example, most participants guessed either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia (the capital is Harrisburg). But there were some who came up with cities such as Wilkes-Barrne or Erie. A significant percentage (I think around 14%) wouldn’t even try to hazard a guess.
***I wish all I had to worry about was learning geography**
No problem - BO thinks there are 57 States....he’s not worried.
Local control will **not** fix the government schools. Why?
Answer: ( Some of this is from a post I made early in the day.) ( PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE carefully consider what follows.)
Simply by attending a government K-12 school children learn to be completely comfortable with government taking money from their neighbor to pay for something their parents want for FREE!! Do this every day for 13 years and you WILL get a population of voters who are comfortable voting for the Federal Reserve, the IRS, direct election of Senators, FDR's New Deal, Johnson's Great Society, a thousand other paper cuts of socialism, and, now, a communist OBAMA!
Simply by attending government schools ( which must godless in their worldview) children learn to be either atheistic, at worst, or to compartmentalize their faith into public and private spheres, at best.
Next....Government schools can NEVER be religiously neutral, even if school districts were the size of a suburban subdivision. All of them must choose between being godless in their worldview ( this is what they are now) or God-centered. Neither is religiously neutral in content or consequences.
If they are God-centered, then which religion or denomination will be given the government imprimatur? This isn't religiously neutral. For example, John Newman started the Catholic schools because the existing government schools promoted Protestantism.
If government schools are godless, as they are now, then children are taught to think godlessly. They either adopt an atheistic worldview or they **forced** to compartmentalize their faith into private and public spheres. This certainly isn't religiously neutral.
Finally, ALL government schools violate the First Amendment and freedom of conscience, and this is true even if school districts consisted of merely 50 families.
The government forces the taxpayer to pay for the religiously non-neutral religious worldview adopted by the school. ( violation of establishment of religion.)
The government school orders all children who can not afford private tuition or homeschooling into their government kiddie prisons ( oops! “schools”) and orders them to SHUT UP for nearly all of the school day. It is the government who assigns with whom they will or will not assemble, and the government strictly controls what the children publish and distribute. ( violation of free assembly, speech, and press.)
Even if government school districts were the size of 20 families they would still be a freedom of conscience and First Amendment abomination! Taxpayers would be forced to pay for a religious and political worldview they would find abhorrent, and parents would literally be forced to pay a ransom or religious tax ( private tuition or homeschooling) just to free their children from the government indoctrination camps ( oops! “schools”).
Finally, government schools are giving a service away for free. This is called PRICE-FIXING! If private CEO’s were to do this they would be in prison in record time, but somehow the government can get away with it! Giving education away for tuition-FREE creates a very hostile business climate for the creation of private schooling. There are **many*** counties in the U.S. where there are NO private schools ( such as mine) precisely because the government is giving away a service for FREE!
None of the above is fixed with local control...even if the size of school districts were the size of 10 families.
( Sorry,...I did not proof read this.)
I have a fantasy.
Next presidential election, line up the candidates before a big roll of butcher paper tacked on the wall.
Give each one a crayon. (Or perhaps a small box of crayons, eight colors.)
“Draw a map of the United States. You have ten minutes.”
Then
“Draw a map of the world. Draw and label all continents, oceans, and as many countries you can name. You have 30 minutes.”
I’d LOVE to see that, and nationally televised, live and unscripted too.
Bet it was mostly self-taught.
I have an otline map of the U.S. - just the state borders, no names. I kept pointing to different areas, asking my 15-year-old granddaughter to name teach state. Damned if she didn’t nail them. I was flabbergasted. Next time I’ll try a world map.
I saw her in a TV commercial for pistachios
I saw her in a TV commercial for pistachios
Nice rant but I see no answers.
I can however save you some time. Doing away with the public school system is a coward’s way out. First off, not all people can afford a nice private school and leaving the poor with even less education than they’re getting now will damage the country even more.
Thinking that all kids can be home schooled is a nice fantasy but it isn’t going to happen in the real world. A good many parents can barely read, let alone teach a whole range of subjects even to the low standards of today.
My great grandparents, grandparents, parents and myself didn’t learn to rely on government from school. That apparently came to schools later with greater and greater federal control.
Returning schools to local control returns responsibility to the local area. Instead of dragging all schools down, shools like my rural district did a far better job than shools 15 miles away in the city.
The list could be expanded endlessly. For example, Nyasaland (now Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Tannu Tuva, and many others.
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